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In my experience, the best return you get is when you send your press release to individual editors/influencers. I have used PR Web, but have not found nearly as much value as actually contacting individual editors. Time consuming? Yes. But we've gotten some great press/links back.
I agree with Loren. We need more information, as I've never heard of a product page dropping quickly out of the rankings because of an "out of stock" message.
Perhaps the issue is more on the logistical side. Is there a way to make sure the product stays in stock? Or perhaps a preorder/backorder option in case a searcher wants to order the item anyway?
I agree that there is probably next to no SEO value for using the **tag here. What I do like is that it works from a usability standpoint. To me it is natural for that line to be bolded because it is the name of the product. It makes the name stand out a bit and makes it easier for the user to know what they are looking at. For that, +1. **
I agree with Bryce that it probably doesn't affect Google's perception of the page at all.
However, from a user standpoint an "outdated" copyright could work against you. I see it as a sort of trust signal. I was on a page earlier that said "Copyright 2001" and I just couldn't get over it. If they can't bother to update the date on their site, why would they bother with having me as a customer?
Just something to think about. Great question.
I usually don't use shortcuts when I research Mommy Blogs. The quality ones get a ton of requests for reviews and giveaways. You have to find a way to stick out from the bunch. I usually read a handful of posts and the "About Me" page before sending an email. That way I can personalize it, and possibly even find a good pitch (ie - if they do a product of the week, etc). Most good Mommy Blogs have a page devoted to PR or you can just use their contact form.
I haven't used them so I can't vouch personally, but http://momsparkmedia.com/ might be a good option for you. Looks like they act as a liaison between bloggers and companies.
I hope that helps!
You might find some useful information from Google Analytics. If your client already has a Facebook fan page there is some useful information in the Insights.
If they have an ecommerce site, they could add questions to the checkout process in order to learn more about who is ordering (just be careful not to interfere with the user experience.
I haven't personally used it, but Quantcast might be another option.
Hi Paul,
It is important to note that I am talking about getting the links that link to your competitors' sites - not links from the competitors' sites themselves (though if you can get those by all means). These sites are already linking to a site with a similar topic to yours so the thought is they may be easier to get.
For instance, if you sell a product and find a blog has reviewed a competitors' product, write to them and see if they would be interested in trying out your product. Chances are, they will be willing to give it a try. If not, no biggie - move on to the next.
You may also find relevant (quality) directories and publications this way.
Bonus: You may learn something you didn't know about your competitors.
Does that make sense?
Jake's approach is right on. Key is building that relationship and reaching out in a personalized way.
Some people on the SEOMoz forum disagree with this tactic, but I also check who is linking to my competitors for the keywords I want to target. You can use OSE for this. It's a great way to find relevant linking opportunities. Some would argue that getting the same links as your competitors is fruitless. I agree if that is all you are doing. Combine it with Jake's strategy and you will be on the right path.
Greg - That actually is a great suggestion. We've used FB questions in the past for feedback on flavors and recipes. It is my fall back solution if I cannot find an apps that
a) Allows photos
b) Allows a link to individual "recipe" pages
Unfortunately, for now FB questions doesn't offer this sort of functionality. Thanks for the suggestion though!
I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a "voting" app on Facebook. We have some user-generated recipes that we want to post and allow our fans to vote for their favorite.
Similar to this: http://www.facebook.com/New7WondersofNature#!/New7WondersofNature?sk=app_114026852036251
I've contacted Woobox but they only allow users to choose between 2 options and we would need 5.
Any thoughts?Thanks!
This may not be a viable option if you don't have time to dedicate, but I've had some luck with emailing press contacts individually with my press release. If you can personalize the response - even better. Most publications, online and print, will have contact information. You can also call ahead and see who would be the appropriate person to send it to.
I actually tweeted about this problem a few weeks ago and got the following response from the SEOMoz team:
"It's a known issue with the AdWords API and we're working on it as fast as we can."
I've been using the search volume within Google Keyword Tools in the meantime.
I agree with Syed. If I'm understanding the situation correctly, you are worried about a single page linking to a different page multiple times. This should not be a problem at all. Google will not penalize.
You've gotten some great responses here. I just wanted to add my gut reaction to your question.
If a keyword ranks #1 but no one is around to click on it does it really matter?
My advice would be to take a look at the keywords again and determine if they are the most valuable words you should be ranking for.
Sometimes the best targeted words don't bring the traffic and the best trafficked words don't bring the qualified visits.
Another good indication is whether or not they link to your competitor. I mostly find directories from looking at competitors' back link profiles. Most of them are industry specific and, assuming they are still maintained, worth the couple of minutes it takes to submit.
I think Anthony's response was perfect, but I just wanted to add that I think that ranking with a DR of <40 is very doable. It's a great tool for relative difficulty.
This seems like a contest your customers might be interested in. Do you have an email list? Perhaps send it out there.
I have never run a contest where someone has to create a video, but I have had success with free contest listing sites. Do a quick google search and you will find a few where you can list your contest. Also, don't be afraid to ask your followers to RT your Tweets. I find when I ask followers are happy to oblige.
Best of luck with the contest!
When I google "Aphrodite Desserts" I get the site (and the new SERP 12-pack!) as number 1 as well. Is this your first report? If so, give it a week or two and it should start showing up. Sometimes it can be stubborn.
You can also look at your competitors' (anyone ranking above you for your key terms) backlinks and you may be able to find some good blogs that way.
Alex is correct. The SEOMoz tool bar is a valuable tool. Install it on your browser and you will be able to see the DA and PA of each site you look at. You will also be able to quickly take a look at their backlinks.
Another way to find influential bloggers is on Twitter. (Usually) the more followers a tweeter has the bigger reach their blog has.
I agree with Anthony. This is a great topic. I went to nlpca.com and it wasn't until 2/3 of the way down the page that I actually read what NLP stands for. 
Granted, your target demographic may not be as naive, but a great infographic right off the bat would be a great opportunity to make it clear for people like me.
I don't have any advice for making it spectacular, but you are on a great path. Let us know when you finish because I would love to see it.
I'm sure someone on here can tell you the technical reason why index pages are created (I have just kind of accepted that they exist), I can tell you how to fix the problem. You will need to set up a 301 redirect from either xxx/index to xxx or xxx to xxx/index. I'd point the redirect to the page with more backlinks.
That should fix your duplicate content problem.
In my experience that means that the report is still computing and should be ready on the day posted.
Daniel,
I second John's suggestion with FB ads. You can target by interest. Because you have a natural/organic product I'll bet you can reach a nicely targeted audience. Within your ad give them a reason to like you: a discount, giveaway, promises of useful updates...sometimes even just a pretty picture will draw people in.
I've had a lot of success with FB ads (18,600 fans and counting) and I think with proper targeting you can too.
I have a feeling you would do well with Mommy bloggers. Offer a giveaway to their readers or send them product for review. It's an excellent way to get exposure and links back.
Not sure where to start? I suggest finding those sites that rank well for the keywords you want and see who links to them. You may find a lot of great opportunities there.
Usually about 6 weeks. The last update was at the beginning of June and the next one is scheduled for next Monday.
Not an unintellegent question at all. You are right that you can't message a fan page (as far as I know!) and that someone must follow you in order to DM on Twitter. However, don't be shy about reaching out. Post on the fan wall or @username message the site owner on Twitter. You don't have to spell out that you are looking for a link, just say something like "@username Hey, Have a question about your site - can you DM me?"
I'd think most webmasters wouldn't mind this sort of communication. Social media is all about communication, afterall.
Hope that helps and good luck with the link.
Thanks for everyone's responses! I believe I have solved the mystery.
I went into my analytics and found that traffic had been sent from cnn.com, edition.cnn.com and weather.cnn.com. EGOL had mentioned the widgets that news sites will often use to link to relevant stories. Turns out I found a widget on the weather page that is administered by outside.in - a service that localizes content. I added our blog's feed to outside.in months ago and completely forgot about it. So, I'm assuming, someone who was searching weather or news in the Portland area perhaps would see our most recent post on Portland food carts.
I'm assuming these widgets don't pass any link juice, but I'm so glad to have the traffic and exposure. I suggest anyone who ever writes localized content should sign up for outside.in - your post might just show up on cnn.com.
I'm stumped and I'm hoping some mozzers will be able to help.
I run our company blog (http://scottymacblog.com/). The last couple of days I have noticed that the blog is receiving some traffic from cnn.com. I looked, but cannot find any mention of the blog on cnn. Adding to my frustration is that the content on cnn is constantly changing. Our blog doesn't do any sort of advertising and no one affiliated with the blog posts on cnn. As great as it is to be getting traffic from such a valued source, I have no idea why.
Has something like this happened to (for?) anyone else? Any ideas on how I can research the source of the link?
Thanks in advance!
Wes,
I had a similar problem with getting a fresh ranking report and was told there was a server crash. Some data was lost. I suspect you fell victim as well. I just received an updated report so I'm assuming you will too. HTH.
Exactly what EGOL said.
Sometimes the hardest work is the most rewarding.
Exactly as EGOL said it's all about what makes someone click. It helps to put yourself in the position of the searcher. If I'm looking specifically for Jimmy Choo glasses, I would want to see that in the first part of the meta description to ensure me that your page is one that has what I'm looking for.
It's a large task, but there really is no way of short cutting it.
I did notice that your product pages don't have much in the way of descriptive copy. Once you have your descriptions written out you can use some of that language for descriptions on the site (or vice versa). With product pages can help to have descriptive text to help you rank.
Hope that helps and best of luck!
Agree with Aaron. Don't create multiple social media accounts just to have them. Make sure you have the manpower to keep each one updated. From experience I can tell you it's a lot of work keeping up with the influencers of many different topics.
Mine still says Last Linkscape index update: 05/06/2011
It's possible more updates are to come**.** I would check back again tomorrow**.**
In my link research today I found something interesting. I thought I would share and perhaps get some perspective on it.
The term I'm looking into is the moderately competative "cinnamon bread". Not surprisingly, the first page of results is mostly recipes. The first few All Recipes, Pioneer Woman and Joy the Baker are not all that surprising - all pretty big names in the world of online baking. But when I got the the 4th result I thought it was odd - passthesushi.com (more specifically http://passthesushi.com/fluffy-cinnamon-bread) with a DA of 38, respectable but not up there with the "big boys". Her on page elements are standard, not really optimized for much. She has a few hundred Facebook Fans and Google Connect followers.
Now even more curious, I looked into her backlinks and discovered a ton of different no follows. She obviously does a lot of commenting on other baking/recipe blogs. Could these no follows be helping her rankings? I was always under the impression blog commenting was more to build a community and get yourself in front of influencers...could these no follows actually be counting towards ranking?
Curious to hear some thoughts on this.
It looks like the next OSE update is on June 6th so hang in there! Sometimes it takes 30-60 days. I'm patiently waiting for links to my brand new site to show as well.
Good luck and I'd love to hear how it turns out for you!
I think "success" in social media is determined by different variables for different companies. I work for a food manufacturing company and for us the most important variable is credibility. We implemented FB last July and now have over 18000 fans. Have our consumer sales gone up tremendously? No, but now we can show big stores that we pitch to that our product is so popular we have over 18000 fans. It's all about perception. It even got us on Groupon's radar, who had intitially turned us down for a national campaign because we were "too small". Our company is the same size now, we just have the ability to show off our 18000 fans.
Point is, you may want to step back and consider variables other than sales. Some would argue that using social media to leverage brand awareness and credibility may pay off more in the long run than an X% sales increase.
Thanks everyone. It seems the consensus is to rename the files (assuming they aren't already ranking high with their current file name), ensure each one has proper alt text and submit an image site map to google.
I've got a busy Friday ahead of me!
Also, Mike - thanks for the tip on the caption tag. I hadn't thought of that. Every little bit of "google juice" helps. I'm going to give it a try!
Thanks, Benjamin. That's a great way of looking at it. All of the images I looked at did have "golden retriever" in the beginning of the file name.
Plus bonus points because I got to look at puppies.
I am currently working on a site with 100+ recipes that all have image file names that are relevant, but not optimized for keyword purposes. I'm wondering - from an SEO perspective - would it be worth my time to go back through all of the images and rename them with keywords in mind?
On my own site I have always done this as a "best practice" but I'm curious - does it make a difference to search engines? Does anyone have any recent research/experiences that they would like to share?
Thanks!
If it is a small local business I'd definitely invest a few of those hours in getting local profiles set up. Taking the time to do consistent, quality listings can prove invaluable for a local business. Here is a great list of local business directories:
http://websuccessdiva.com/blog/local-business-directories/
Other than that I agree with Ryan that project mapping is very important. But that is assuming you will eventually have more than 8 hours to work on the project.
Alright, I'm taking a chance and stepping into the developer role here...something completely out of my comfort zone so bear with me.
We have a pretty site built in PHP (www.dassant.com) and we are coming across some duplicate content issues. For example, these are supposed to be the same page:
http://www.dassant.com/products.php
and
http://www.dassant.com/products
So the SEO in me states the obvious: We need a 301 redirect stat! Unfortunately, our developer went MIA and I am having the hardest time getting a 301 implemented.
After some research I found the code that I need to paste into the PHP (for this specific page):
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.dassant.com/products" );
?>
However, when I paste it in, upload and refresh the page, I get these error messages in the (multiple) browsers I use. (See attached)
With my limited knowledge I can't find these supposed other redirects so I'm stumped. Can anyone shed some light?
Thank you in advance!